Thomas Rathbun bolsters Holland swim team after moving from Iowa

Thomas Rathbun left his heart and his family in Iowa, but knew leaving the state was the best thing for his swimming career. Rathbun made the move to Holland and has been a key swimmer for the Holland boys swim team, ranked No. 2 in the state in Division 2. “My whole family s...

Thomas Rathbun left his heart and his family in Iowa, but knew leaving the state was the best thing for his swimming career.

Rathbun made the move to Holland and has been a key swimmer for the Holland boys swim team, ranked No. 2 in the state in Division 2.

“My whole family still lives in Iowa,” Rathbun said. “It is definitely really tough, but we communicate very well.”

Rathbun is a junior for the Dutch and specializes in the backstroke and distance freestyle.

He had to sit out the first semester since he does not live in the district — instead he lives with an aunt and uncle in Grand Haven. It is all worth the sacrifice, he said.

“Swimming in Iowa is definitely not as big of a deal, especially high school,” Rathbun said. “The competition wasn’t there. Coming here, I am getting a lot more training. I have already seen a big improvement.”

Rathbun could have gone other places, too.

“I had family here and in Charlotte, N.C. We broke it down,” Rathbun said. “Choosing Holland was more for the team aspect and more individual time to work with the coach.”

It was a process that went fast.

“It was definitely such a quick decision,” he said. “We started really talking about it the first week of August. So within a month, I went from talking about this — I brought the idea to them — to all of a sudden being here. It was definitely hard to be away from them. It is definitely benefiting me.”

While sitting out the first part of the season, Rathbun qualified to swim at the U.S. Junior National Championships and competed there with 12 of his Michigan Lakeshore Aquatic club teammates.

“Thomas is just learning how to swim short course,” Holland coach Don Kimble said. “It is a little bit of a learning curve for him, but it has allowed us to move some people around. It gives us a lot more options and allowed us to strengthen our B relays.”

Rathbun helped Holland defeat Zeeland and claim a share of the OK Green Conference title. The rematch will occur this weekend at the conference meet at Zeeland.

Rathbun is looking forward to it.

“At first, I really didn’t know what to expect from Holland-Zeeland,” Rathbun said. “It really hit my how big of a deal this meet was. My teammates really motivated me to get into it. It is about who really wants it more. Wanting it bad was a really big deal for me.”